California approves recreational marijuana, Florida OKs medicinal use

Marijuana continued its slow growth of legalization as voters in
California and other states approved recreational use for adults and
several states, including Florida, approved marijuana for medicinal
uses. Pictured, a patient smokes medicinal marijuana in the San
Francisco Patients Cooperative in 2005 in San Francisco, not long after
California legalized it for medical use. File photo by Terry Schmitt/UPI

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Two of the most
significant votes on marijuana -- for recreational use in California
and medicinal use in Florida -- were approved with large margins, and voters said yes to some measure of legality in a number of other states where it was on the ballot.

Initiatives for recreational use appeared to
be on the way to approval by voters in Nevada and Maine, though a
similar measure is falling short of the needed 60 percent of voters in
Arizona.

In addition to Florida, North Dakota and
Arkansas approved medicinal marijuana laws, and the initiative in
Montana was trending toward approval early in the vote-counting process.

"This represents a monumental victory for the
marijuana reform movement," Ethan Nadelmann, executive director of the
Drug Policy Alliance, said in a statement. "With California's leadership
now, the end of marijuana prohibition nationally, and even
internationally, is fast approaching."

The California vote
is considered to be the most significant of all nine initiatives as the
state is often considered a bellwether for the rest of the country.
California's approval of recreational marijuana also means the entire
west coast of the United States has legalized consumption of the drug.

The feeling among advocates, both for wider
use of marijuana in medicine and for full legalization, is that the
California approval could help push other states to do the same and may
change the national conversation on marijuana, which is still considered
illegal by the federal government.

Of states voting for medicinal marijuana,
Florida was considered the most likely to pass, despite narrowly failing
in 2014. Polls before the election
suggested up to 80 percent of the state supported the initiative, and
nearly that much voted to make the Sunshine State the first in the South
to legalize the drug for medical use.